A late come-back with another Chris Porter penalty and a stoppage-time strike from Callum Ainley gave the Alex all 3 points at the Alexandra Stadium after Jordan Bowery had given the Alex a first-half lead and Newport had themselves came from behind yesterday afternoon.
Manager David Artell made one change from last Saturday’s draw at Morecambe with Ainley coming in for Paul Green in midfield whilst young defender Luke Offord made the bench for the first time this season after Corey Whelan and Kevin O’Connor returning to their parent clubs.
The first chance of the game came on 19 minutes as Bowery had an effort from distance that was saved by keeper Joe Day before Ryan Wintle also shot at Day from 25-yards a few minutes later. The first chance for the visitors came on 33 minutes with Dan Butler’s left-wing cross headed onto the roof of the net by Padraig Amond before the Alex would take the lead a minute later.
Perry Ng found Porter with the striker finding Bowery who fired the ball through the legs of Day. It was all the hosts until the break as Bowery had another header saved by Day before Porter had a chance that was similar to the goal but Day saved again.
Into the second period and more Alex dominance, Ng forced another save out of Day before George Ray brought a top save out of the County keeper from a James Jones free-kick. The equaliser came with 25 minutes to play as Semenyo was found in the area with the midfielder scoring across Garratt into the bottom corner. They would take the lead with 14 minutes to play after mistakes defensively from Ben Garratt and Ng, scoring from close range, before late drama would give the hosts all 3 points.
Firstly, Bowery was fouled at the far post trying to get on the end of a Harry Pickering cross with Porter scoring his 3rd penalty in 4 games, getting his name on the scoresheet in 5 straight games before a scramble allowed Ainley keep his head and score from just inside the area.
The next game sees a trip to MK Dons next Saturday before a home game against Colchester United the following week.
What have we learnt from this game?
What a finish but it was a game that we should have had out of sight well before then. We were the much better side for most of the game, bar the time between their first goal and Hunt’s injury, which occurred when their forward collided with Hunt as he was shielding the ball through to Garratt which could see his season ended prematurely.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
12/01/2019 4:00 pm
Attendance: 3104
Referee: Nick Kinseley
| Crewe Alexandra | Newport County | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowery, Porter, Ainley | Semenyo, Amond | ||||||
| Garratt | Day | ||||||
| Ng | Franks | ||||||
| Ray | Bennett | ||||||
| Hunt | 83 | Demetriou | |||||
| Pickering | Hornby-Forbes | ||||||
| Ainley | 90 | Dolan | 58 | ||||
| Jones | Willmott | 90 | |||||
| Wintle | Semenyo | 81 | |||||
| Bowery | Butler | ||||||
| Porter | Amond | ||||||
| Kirk | 77 | Matt | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Richards | Townsend | ||||||
| Raynes | 90 | Pipe | |||||
| Miller | Marsh-Brown | ||||||
| Lowery | Bakinson | 58 | |||||
| Dale | 77 | Sheehan | 81 | ||||
| Finney | 83 | O'Brien | 90 | ||||
| Offord | Neufville | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 18 | Goal attempts | 12 |
| 9 | On Target | 5 |
| 8 | Corners | 0 |
| 6 | Fouls | 15 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 61 | % | 39 |